Your Guide To Surviving In The End Times - From The Editors of ChristianMoney.com

05/02/2011

Medical Training for Use During Survival Conditions

Formal training is often the essential component in your ultimate success at mastering a skill set of some kind. Although it is possible to be self-taught in many areas related to survival, useful, in-depth first aid is not really one of them. There is just simply too much in the way of precise knowledge and technique that needs to be learned to a substantial level before anyone should render medical care to another (or to himself, for that matter). This does not mean that if you have no opportunity for more formal training that you should entirely eschew trying to gain some knowledge from books or online courses, but the truth is that first aid, and especially field medicine, is an area in which specific, formal, hands-on instruction is going to make a huge difference in your ability to render useful assistance.

For starters, get some basic first aid training from a qualified provider. Certainly the national organization that comes to mind most immediately for this is the American Red Cross (www.redcross.org), which offers a variety of educational programs to help satisfy a wide array of health-related training needs, and makes this instruction available throughout the country at local facilities convenient to just about everyone. The Red Cross offers a comprehensive, 8-hour course in first aid that includes instruction in CPR and in the operation of the automated external defibrillator. The cost can vary slightly, but is around $65 at present. We would suggest that, as a minimum, you receive formal training in basic first aid, and that you be sure to keep your knowledge up-to-date by renewing your certification on a timely basis.

Beyond that which is available from a provider like the Red Cross, you would do well to think about taking your training in this area to an even more elevated level. To this end, you might consider an outfit based in Marietta, Ohio called Medical Corps (www.medicalcorps.org). Medical Corps is staffed by a medic, doctor, dentist, and other credentialed health care professionals, and exists specifically to provide multi-day, hands-on courses in field medicine to regular folks willing to pay the $350 tuition. A wide variety of skills are taught in their popular courses, including suturing and minor field surgery, dealing with broken bones, pain management, field dentistry, anesthesia, and a variety of other topics that fall well outside the scope of a basic first aid course.

In a distressed environment, there will be those things you can sort of improvise without much advance training…and those things that will be much more difficult to improvise. Substantial emergency first aid is one of those things that you may well have to go completely without if you or someone in your “group” does not have the appropriate training, and if that’s the case, it won’t matter how large your cache of precious metals is or how much food you have stored away…if you are without the ability to utilize medical techniques to preserve good health in a survival environment, you will surely become a casualty.

James L. Paris is the Editor-In-Chief of Christian Money.com and the author of more than 20 books on personal finance. He studied biblical prophecy while a student at Central Bible College in Springfield, Missouri. Along with completing ROTC survival and marksmanship training, he is certified as a first degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do. Selling The Mark Of The Beast – How The Antichrist Will Convince The Masses To Willingly Take The Mark.

Bob Yetman, Editor-at-Large at Christian Money.com, is an author & instructor in the realm of personal finance and investing, as well as on topics of fitness and self-defense. A U.S. Army veteran, he has earned a B.A. degree in psychology from Stetson University, numerous licenses and certifications in the financial services industry, and the Certified Fitness Trainer and Specialist in Martial Arts Conditioning designations from the International Sports Sciences Association. He is the co-author of the yet to be released book, Selling The Mark Of The Beast – How The Antichrist Will Convince The Masses To Willingly Take The Mark.